While the Tampa Bay Buccaners might have just surged back into prominence through dominance over the last four years, Mike Evans has been living on that level ever since he stepped foot in the league. Evans has quietly become not only one of the best receivers of his generation but of all-time as he continues to put together a Hall of Fame case that will be hard to ignore.
Evans has been on a tear for the last decade and it took Tom Brady coming to Tampa Bay for the rest of the league to fully pay attention to all that he’s done. His impending free agency last year also picqued some interest but he returned to the Bucs in order to continue his pursuit of greatness with the only team he’s ever known.
Among the incredible feats he’s achieved, Evans is in the midst of chasing down Jerry Rice’s record for most consecutive seasons with 1,000 yards receiving. Evans hasn’t had a single season of his career where he’s finished below that mark, but he’s officially in danger of losing the streak this year.
How many more yards does Mike Evans need to reach 1,000 yards this season?
Evans got off to a hot start to the season but a hamstring injury ended up costing him three straight games. Missing that time set his progress back, but it hasn’t completely ruined his chances of once again hitting 1,000 yards this season.
Here’s where things stand heading into Week 14:
|
Current Yards (through Week 13) |
Yards Needed |
|---|---|
|
521 |
471 |
A big game against the Carolina Panthers where he went for 118 yards helped take a nice chunk out of the remaining yardage total he needs. If he wants to keep his streak alive, Evans will need to average 95.5 yards per game over the last five games of Tampa Bay’s season.
Given how high powered the offense has looked, that might not be as hard as it seems.
If Evans is able to reach 1,000 yards for an 11th time, he’ll have officially tied Rice’s all-time record. That means he’ll be just a season away from making history and setting a new mark that might be hard for the next guy to break.
We live in a world where the NFL is as pass happy as its ever been, but it’s been like that for a while. Evans being the next closest guy to Rice, who set the record back between 1986 and 1996, says a lot about just how good he is. It’s a feat made even more impressive by looking at the quarterbacks he’s had for most of that time as well, something that only adds to how special Evans has been.
